Tap Into Saving Lives

How often do you wash your hands each day? According to TippyTap.org, the simple act of washing hands with soap can save millions of lives. With children in developing countries, diarrhoea and respiratory infection kills more under the age of five than AIDS, TB and malaria combined; the low cost act of hand washing could save millions of these children each year.

TippyTap.org is promoting hand washing behaviour so it becomes a natural, ingrained habit around the world. It supports the notion of the globalhandwashingday initiative that this simple shift can save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention.

The challenge in promoting such a simple behaviour is that although people are aware that its integral to staying healthy, the majority of people don’t practice it, and this spans across those with all levels of education and range from developing to wealthy nations around the world. “Awareness, education and easy to use hand washing infrastructure are all important pieces of the answer, especially in rural areas where these components are lacking. But changing health behaviour is difficult.”

As part of TippyTap.org’s hand washing campaign, they have created their version of a TippyTap, a hands free way of washing hands particularly in rural areas without access to running water. The organization hopes that this tool can spark conversations about hand washing with soap and increase the behaviour. Apart from the TippyTap, they have created posters, songs, videos, manuals and many other educational and promotional collaterals to support their hand washing movement.

This is their award winning video:

Help TippyTap.org spread the word, click here to join them! Or, set up a TippyTap in your community to start the conversation and ‘map your tap’ here!